Charing Cross Station Decoration - murals of history

 

Charing Cross Station platform mural. Photo by Angela Lansbury.  Copyright.

For a quick free introduction to London, stop for 5 to 10 minutes on Charing Cross station platform to read the murals about the history of the station, and the historic events of the area.

Charing Cross station is next to Trafalgar Square. On the north side of Trafalgar Square if the imposing National Gallery of Art. Behind that, looking north, is the National Portrait Gallery.

In the station, the underground railway station, on the Bakerloo line platform, are murals showing the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery.   

I took the above photo on the Bakerloo line platform on arrival (from north London, West Harrow). The mural shows an historic scene. 

The twelve men were wearing large white ruffs around their necks. Their clothes are all black. 

The elaborate tablecloth is coloured red, which would hide stains such as blood stains from meat. The pattern would also help to hide stains.

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Easy train changes

Some countries show easy changes on the main rail maps or supplementary maps. 

In Singapore the MRT map shows approximate walking time between stations nearby.

Sometimes the people manning the station kiosk are helpful. Other times they don't have a clue. You might find better results at another station. Nearer your change stations. 

Or ask people who live or work in the area. Or people who live in your block when you move to a new area.

If you move to a new city, you can calculate travel times. It is easier to time a real time journey.

Mark on your own 'magic' map the easy changeover stations and the difficult ones.

London, UK

For example, in London, sometimes you just have to cross the platform at stations such as Finchley Road going into town on the bakerloo and Met lines. And at Wembley Park.

Baker Street has some easy changes and some hard ones. 

Singapore

It also depends on your attitude. I like Newston station. I find the change over easy, although you take 2 escalotrs up, a quick walk past the ticket office, insert your ticket again. Better than Bugis which involves an escaalator up, a long walk with a travelator, Another escalator.  The worst station for me is Stevens.  I took a bus from the Orchard Road and Orchard MRT station area to Stevens MRT. I counted six escalators. My husband said it was five. Plus some walking. Whatever. it was more than two escalators too many.

Lots of stations have seveeral entrances and exits. For example, Tanjong Pagar. I was visiting International Plaza. On my way there, I had an Escalator up. Returning I would have had to descend a large number of steps.

However, new friends led me across the road, through a shopping centre, which seemed an unnecesary diversion, however, down a lift to the platform, no steps. 

Another station with assorted exits is Little India. Check exits in advance. if you take the wrong one, not only do you have a walk, but you might need to cross diagonally which means an L shape of two sets of traffic lights and long waits.

Useful Websites

UK

https://www.reddit.com/r/TransitDiagrams/comments/uhepia/oc_a_new_map_for_london_rail_river_services_with/

Singapore

https://mothership.sg/2017/09/lta-produces-maps-with-walking-times-calories-burnt-between-mrt-stations/#:~:text=It%20is%20estimated%20that%20by%20train%2C%20travelling%20time,is%20just%20five%20minutes.%20And%2022.5%20calories%20burnt.

Look At London - Baker Street, The Underground Station, and Sherlock Holmes

Baker Street station. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Underground Symbol

The classic circular symbol of the underground, a red circle with a black border, and white central disc, a blue cross piece, and letter in white capital letters. You can see more at the London Transport Museum. London underground and individual stations have write ups of their own and entries in Wikipedia. 

The Sherlock Holmes Feature

Notice the tiled picture of Sherlock Holmes with his pipe and Scottish deerstalker hat. You can buy hats like this with brims which lift up and down. In the down position they cover the ears. 

The Sherlock Holmes Statue

Outside the station is a statue of Sherlock Holmes. A popular place for a selfie.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

Across Baker street is the Sherlock Holmes Museum. You can visit the museum, or just the shop stocked with souvenirs and novelties.

My Tube Map Collection

Problem
1 You have several tube maps and don't know which is the latest.
2 All your tube maps get thrown out

Answers
1 Keep only the latest. Write the date large in pencil on the one you just got. (It's on the map.)
2 Keep one current map in your jacket pocket with your bus pass. Store old ones in a box, labelled KEEP THESE FOR COLLECTION>

Stories
My husband threw away all my old tube maps which I was saving. He said, "They were all out of date. You only need the latest one."

But each one has a different cover. I was collecting them. If you like ephemera, or art, or collecting with a view to leaving some history to your grandchildren and the nation, maybe something of both nostalgic value and financial value. But we've a house full of clutter, so many cuttings, papers and books that we have trouble finding essentials, like bills and wills.

Is this grounds for divorce? Or is it what keeps us together, that he de-clutters my life?

What can I do, what can you do, to defeat the clutter-busters and clearer uppers? I should have kept my tube maps in a book labelled postcard collection, with plastic pages, probably loose-leaf. I should have labelled the cover, Historic Tube Maps, collected 19..- 2016. I should have written a caption under each one.

For example, my latest is London Underground Tube Map June 2016. The cover art, so the minuscule print on the back page says, is Tunnel Vision.

Tips
Tube maps are in racks on most of the central area stations. At smaller stations they are often kept behind the counter and will be available if you ask for one.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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Chocolate delights discovered today: chocolate chickens to buy, and Museums in Minsk and London

Where can you buy and try chocolate eggs, and chocolate chickens? Which came first, the chocolate chicken or the chocolate egg?

Chocolate hen and eggs, according to the ad in today's UK Metro newspaper, (which is free at London underground stations most mornings), £2.99 from Lidl supermarket. (The small print informs you: 250 grams, selected stores, £1.20 /100g.

Nestle Smarties Egg, an egg filled with Smarties, costs £1.50 for the (122g egg, but only £1.35 with a MyWaitrose card.

You can join and get a card from waitrose.com/mywaitrose - also 10% off Easter confectionery. Small print on their ad reads: Selected stores and lines. Offer ends March 22nd.

Asda's ad in yesterday's Metro suggested get egg-cited for Easter and offered three eggs for £10. The five varies are Mars and friends egg containing three bars, Snickers, Mars and Twix, £5 each 327g.
The Galaxy Minstrels contains three Minstrels. The Maltesers teasers contains three Teasers. The Twirl contains 2 Twirls (I needed a magnifying class to check the small print on the box, but the box picture accurately shows the number you receive). The Cadbury Heroes contains a variety of miniatures.  Click and collect ASDA.com/clickandcollect

If you want to visit a chocolate museum and cafe in London, England, there's one in Brixton, south London:
The Chocolate Museum

187 Ferndale Road, 

Brixton

London, UK SW9 8BA

United Kingdom
www.thechocolatemuseum.co.uk

Other chocolate museums are in Belgium, Belarus, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the USA and more countries. Just a few:

Choco-story, Bruges, Belgium.

Chocolate Museum, Minsk, Belarus.

Chocolate Museum, Minsk, Belarus. According to Metro, the Chocolate Museum in Minsk, Belarus asked visitors to stop eating the displays, otherwise there would soon by nothing left. Better visit it soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_chocolate_museums
You can read reviews of chocolate museums on Tripadvisor.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons, chocoholic author, photographer, speaker.

Where you can and can't use and charge your mobile phone on stations and trains

Dreadful when your phone dies - no emails, can't call, can't answer, can't check your satnav, can't check train times or call a taxi, can't take a selfie or a photo of something interesting. When you need to call a taxi from the station or phone home to say, "I'm here - collect me," you feel pretty desperate. If only you could charge your phone on the train.

Many stations in London enable you to use a mobile phone for up to half an hour or longer. Wonderful. Providing your phone is charged.

You can buy chargers, little devices the size of your phone which store charge, like an extension, in effect a large battery. The cost and size varies according to how long you need a charge. For example, The Mobile Juice Pack 6000.
www.PowerGenbatt.com


Having bought it, you must remember to charge it and to take it with.  Some of us find it hard to remember to take our phone, never mind remembering the charger for long journeys or days out.

Luckily my phone was fully charged when I spotted this plug on an underground train in London. I was delighted. I took a picture.

Unfortunately, I then noticed the sign beside the socket.


Before I got off, I just had time to put on my glasses and bend down to read the instruction. No! It says Not for passenger use. Ah - shame. So disappointed.

That's a pity.

Why can't passengers use the sockets? Is it cost? Then get a sponsor. It would be so handy. And a safety feature. Once or twice my phone has died before I reached my station late at night and I thought how much safer I would feel if I had a working phone. I could take a photo of anybody lurking nearby, or a selfie, and email it to others. 

Being a law-abiding person I would not use a socket which told you not to use it.

But the lady sitting next to the socket is using it. The train has not crashed. She has not been arrested.

I have not had time to tell her. Obviously she had not understood the sign. Maybe she doesn't speak English. Perhaps she speaks

French.

Moi aussi.

I am also getting forgetful.